President of Ukraine takes oath on Peresopnytsia Gospel

On May 20, Volodymyr Zelensky was inaugurated as Ukraine's president in Kyiv.

The ceremony was attended by President of Latvia Raimonds Vejonis, President of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė, President of Estonia Kersti Kalujid, President of Georgia Salome Zurabishvili, and President of Hungary Janos Ader, Chairman of the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic, Deputy Chairman of the Senate of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Vice-President of Turkey, Azerbaijani Parliament Speaker, Deputy Prime Minister of Belarus and Vice Premiers of Romania, Armenia, Slovakia and Bulgaria.

Four foreign ministers also took part in the inauguration ceremony: US Secretary of Energy Rick Perry, Canadian Minister of Defense Harjit Sajjan, French Minister for Europe, and Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Chaputowicz and more than 40 other high-ranking officials.

The president-elect swore allegiance to Ukraine on the Peresopnytsia Gospel.

Having laid his hand on the Christian relic, Volodymyr Zelensky vowed to provide for the good of the homeland, the welfare of the Ukrainian people, to adhere to the Constitution, to raise the profile of the state in the world.

The solemn ceremony was attended by all the spiritual leaders of Ukraine - the members of the AUCCRO and the representative of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.

It should be noted that at the inauguration ceremony the OCU was represented by Metropolitan Epifaniy and Patriarch Emeritus Filaret.

The Peresopnytsia Gospel is a handwritten sample of art of the 16th century, written in the Old Ukrainian language, one of the first such translations of the Gospel.

It was created in 1556-1561 by the son of the archpriest Mykhailo Vasilevich and archimandrite Hryhorii of the Holy Assumption Monastery who started the work in the village of Palatz (now Khmelnitsky region) on the order of Princess Anastasia Zaslavska (Golshanska), and completed it in Peresopnytsia (now Rivne region). The book consists of 482 sheets, its weight is 9.3 kg.

Presently, it is stored at the Institute of Manuscripts of Vernadsky National Library of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. The Peresopnytsia Gospel is a spiritual monument and a national symbol on which the President of Ukraine swears allegiance to their people when assuming their high responsibilities.